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Q&A with Graphic Designer, Julie Bierschenk, on What Inspires Her and Surviving the Polar Vortex

By Kate Pinelli
Agency Thoughts

January 30, 2014

In today’s digital space, which company best captures their brand essence through design?

I find that companies that stay true to their brand through all mediums achieve the most success with digital media. Apple is a great example; they’ve beautifully branded themselves focusing on simplicity all the while evolving as they go. They remain consistent from print to packaging to screen and all venues.

How did you venture into advertising?

After relocating to Chicago 2.5 years ago, I quickly established connections and friendships with people in the advertising industry. While I had a more traditional branding and design background, I became curious about the advertising and B2B world with the people I met. Luckily a friend of mine was working in the B2B space at the time and was able to connect me. The timing and curiosity lined up at the same allowing me to continue my design career at Symmetri.

What inspires you to do great design work?

Two things come to mind. I think that looking at work by designers and companies that inspire me pushes me to see what is possible. There are infinite websites, blogs, and so on that make great designers and companies accessible. Everything from Dribble to Behance to Designspiration and countless other blogs make it possible to see just about anything in a matter of moments. It’s a great way to get your mind moving when you’re feeling slow or need creative inspiration. Another thing that I’ve been trying to do is create parameters and guidelines for myself. If I put limitations on myself, like only using typography in a certain way or a particular kind of image, I feel like I have something to push against and can create really great and surprising outcomes. Creating rules and parameters is a great way to tone down feeling “too” creative, having too many ideas at once and they can be helpful when there are no parameters whatsoever. The creative process changes and evolves the more you grow into yourself as a designer.

We just had record low temps in Chicago, how did you survive the 2014 Polar Vortex?

I didn’t leave my apartment for about 2.5 days. Before bundling up and facing arctic temps, I turned my heat up as high as it could go and made a great deal of food with whatever ingredients I could find while getting caught up on my Netflix queue. Not a bad way to spend the day inside!